Sony: Exclusivity's 'A Thing Of The Past'

During last week's Games Convention 2008, Sony Computer Entertainment Europe president David Reeves said to GameIndustry.Biz that console exclusive titles from third party publishers are perhaps "a thing of the past."

"It does, and I put it this way: we believe that investment in our own intellectual properties - as particularly Phil Harrison and I tried to do in the last five years with SingStar, or with The Getaway, or with Buzz! - these are ours, we can put them in our cupboard," said Reeves. Since E3 2008, Sony has been diligently promoting their first party software prowess through titles such as Resistance 2, Ratchet and Clank and God of War 3.

"We have to accept more and more that platform holders themselves cannot have exclusives unless they're given millions and millions of dollars not to develop a particular game for one particular platform," said Reeves. He said that working directly with developers is something "that works", particularly in achieving "exclusive" titles.

"But for developers, and you could take someone like Quantic Dream [developers of Heavy Rain] for example - a great game, it takes a lot of time to develop, they need a little bit of funding, external development, said Reeves. "So exclusivity possibly with developers is more likely that exclusivity with publishers."

Do you agree with Reeves's take on exclusivity, or do you think that Sony needs all the third party publisher support they can get? Don't keep your opinions to yourself and let us know below.